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Phil Mickelson sat at the podium in the media room of Royal Liverpool golf course on Monday afternoon and fielded a question about what he has been reading these days.

The question never got answered. But it came up that 12 years ago, when he was heading into Muirfield to play in the 2002 British Open, he was carrying a copy of Stephen Hawking’s book A Brief History of Time.

Heady stuff.

A thinking man’s book.

A man needs to be able to think to get around the links at Hoylake, in northwest England, where this year’s edition of the Open is being held.

Maybe it’s a good omen for Mickelson who must be hoping that his reign as the current British Open champion won’t be coming to an end in a brief period of time.

But it’s hard to think otherwise.

It hasn’t been a stellar season for the big left-hander who has 42 PGA Tour victories and five major titles under his belt. No top-10s and missed cuts at the Masters and The Players on the PGA Tour.

And his best finishes after coming in runner-up in Abu Dhabi at the start of the year have been three T11s, including one this past weekend in Aberdeen where he was defending his Scottish Open title. Some people would be happy with those numbers, but we’ve come to expect more out of Mickelson.

“Well, it obviously hasn’t been a good year,” he said.

But he isn’t down, isn’t discouraged, says numbers don’t tell everything, even though they show he currently ranks 97th in the FedExCup standings, 149th in driving accuracy, 109th in strokes gained putting and 92nd on the PGA Tour money list with under $1 million in earnings.

“I’m driving the ball with more confidence and better than I ever have,” Mickelson said.

“I don’t know if the stats show it or not, but I know I am.”

Mickelson said he isn’t discouraged by his results, that he feels his game is headed in the right direction.

“Normally I would be discouraged or frustrated, but I’m just not,” he said.

“I feel like I’ve had some good breakthroughs in some areas. I haven’t had the results, but the parts feel a lot better than the whole right now. And I don’t know when it will all click together. I don’t know if it will be this week. I don’t know if it will be in three weeks or a month or what, but it should be soon. I feel like it’s really close to being good.”

Mickelson will need to be more than “good” at the 7,312-yard, par-72 Royal Liverpool track, where the fairways are tight, the fescue natty and the winds can blow hard off the Irish Sea and cut across the face of the course.

It was blowing hard Monday when Mickelson went out for his practice round under gray, cloudy skies.

It’s not the kind of weather a 44-year-old man excels in. But Mickelson says he feels great, despite some past injuries and his arthritis.

“I actually feel better than I have in years,” he said.

“I’ve had to work a little bit harder. Every day I have to start my day on a physio ball or on a TRX band and strengthen back and core and legs and so forth to make sure that I’m able to withstand the practice sessions that I’m about to have. At the end of the day I have to do the same thing. But I feel better than I have in a long time ... I believe that the next five years are going to be some of the best in my career.”

Mickelson will have a tough time defending with all the young guns in the field and Tiger Woods back at the site of his emotional 2006 victory.

Most of the players had arrived at Royal Liverpool by Monday, including Canadian Graham DeLaet, finally hitting the links after stopping over in Ireland to play a few rounds.

The top-ranked Canadian in the world, and the only one for certain in this field, teed off at 12:40 for his practice round.